How Not To Be Turned Into a Frog

by AJ Grant

The wonderful thing about writing about religion is that you are guaranteed certain outcomes:

1) You will get something wrong, even if it's just the spelling of your name.

2) You will offend someone, even if it's just people who share your name and don't like where you placed the "i".

3) You will be flamed to a crisp by the people you offended.

4) You will probably want to swear off writing about religion ever again.

It's therefore very understandable why you would want to embrace this challenge, particularly with regards to such an easily understood and universally agreed upon religion as Witchcraft. I mean Paganism. I mean Wicca. I mean - oh heck:

WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

In the realm of fantasy, the word "witch" can refer to anything you want it to refer to. Perhaps it's someone who does magic. Perhaps it's the old woman in the village who knows how to work her herbs. Maybe it's the suffix of some crafty device made of bread and meat, possibly with a drink and potato chips on the side. It could even refer to a kind of pen if you liked (but that might confuse people).

On the other hand, if you're trying to write a more realistic tale about someone who calls him- or herself a witch, or a pagan, you need to familiarize yourself with what those terms tend to mean for the people who self-apply them.


Paganism:

If the term "Christianity" can be boiled down to "the belief in that guy who had the 12 dudes following him who died on that - whaddyacallit? - the t sign," then "Paganism" can be defined as any of a number of beliefs that attempt to recreate pre-Judeo- Christian religious systems. Though there are many forms of paganism, beliefs that tend to crop up often are things like seeing the power of divinity within nature, celebrating a cycle of holidays throughout the year that are based on a natural calendar, and hotly debating whether or not "magic" is spelled with a k.

Speaking of debates, the word "Pagan" itself isn't necessarily a safe word. Some consider the term an insult (which it once was) and others consider it not descriptive enough of what modern practitioners are doing. The term "neo-pagan" fits the bill nicely on both counts, though it hasn't entirely replaced plain old "Pagan."


Wicca:

Wicca is a branch of paganism which believes in a God and a Goddess and, like most religions, comes with some handy guidelines on how its followers should try to be nice people. The main tenets are the Threefold Rule, which states that any action you perform will come back on you with three times the intensity (wish someone good luck and have three times the luck for yourself, wish them ill and come down with three times the illness), and the Wiccan Rede, which states "An' it harm none, do what thou wilt." Putting them both another way, you should try not to hurt people, because it's a jerky thing to do and you will come to regret it. (Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your - oh you get the idea.)

Someone who follows the beliefs of Wicca is known as a Wiccan. Putting this into SAT terms, Wiccan is to Pagan as Baptist is to Christian. And like "Baptist," Wicca is still an umbrella term, as there are many kinds of Wiccans in the world.


Witch:

Self-proclaimed witches (as opposed to those who are called witches by other people who don't prefer using the rhyming word that begins with the letter b) are those who practice some form of ritual, spellcasting, or other method of attempting to affect themselves or the world around them. While many Wiccans are witches, not all witches are Wiccans. This Seussian-sounding logic problem makes sense when you understand that Wicca is a religion while witchcraft is a methodology. You don't have to believe in the Lord and Lady in order to do spells, but Wiccans believe that it helps. This is just like how you don't have to believe in the Virgin Mary in order to say a prayer, but Catholics really feel that having that belief gives you an in.

THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC (WITH OR WITHOUT THE K)

Just as certain magicians prefer to call what they do "illusions" because "tricks" are things that prostitutes do in articles that are not intended for family audiences, many witches prefer to call what they do "magik" or "magick" to help differentiate it from pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The vehemence that can come with this debate is understandable given that, for some Pagans, magic is their religion. Again a handy comparison is a Christian who would like you to remember that the flavorless wafer you get near the end of mass isn't a cookie, and you definitely should not be saving it to dunk into a glass of milk.

It's worth noting, though, that belief in magic can vary wildly amongst Pagans. Not all Pagans are into it. Not all who are into it are Pagan. Those who are into magic tend to agree that there are ways to get what you want and magic is one of those ways. For some that's the belief that they can heal, get money, change the weather, lose 10 pounds in 2 days, slice, dice, make julienne fries and all for the low low cost of lighting the right candles and figuring out what word rhymes with "Clear skies on Saturday night, ideally after 8 when I get out of the movie theater with my new boyfriend, Brad Pitt."

Others believe that spellwork is more akin to the power of positive thinking. There are plenty of people who would never call themselves witches but who believe in creative visualization in order to achieve their goals. Some people do that by writing down what they want over and over again; others do it by casting a circle and repeating an incantation.

Also, like people who pray, witches don't necessarily assume that they're going to get what they want by twitching their nose. Just as someone who prays to win the lottery wouldn't expect a winning ticket to instantly appear in their hand, witches wouldn't expect a money spell to do that either. Instead, a money spell might open up an opportunity to get a better job, or might give them inspiration on what stocks to invest in, or, just possibly, might let them find a twenty dollar bill that they forgot was hidden in a coat pocket. Sometimes, as with prayer, a spell might not lead to anything at all. You never know.

CO-ED NAKED SATAN WORSHIPPING, ONLY NOT

As with many religions, misunderstandings abound. One of the most common ones is that witchcraft (or Wicca, or Paganism) is Satanism. This tends to amuse actual witches/Wiccans/neo-Pagans because being a Satanist requires having a belief in Satan, and that particular belief is actually something that comes with being a Christian - even if said belief is only that Satan sounds like a guy they'd really like to never have to meet. (There are Satanists out there but, as Alton Brown might put it, that's another article.) Instead, neo-Pagans tend not to believe in Satan; their gods and goddesses usually come from whatever set of pre-Judeo-Christian pantheons most speak to them, and many don't believe in any form of Hell after you die.

The witchcraft/Satanism confusion arises because of similarities between witchcraft and Satan worship - or at the very least Satan worship as Hollywood has presented it. Both neo-Pagans and Satanists use five pointed stars as a symbol of their religion (much like Jewish people do with the Star of David), but with Satanists the star is inverted (neo-Pagans have two corners on the ground, Satanists have only one). Rituals and spellwork on both sides of the fence usually involve circles, but that's because those who believe in rituals and spellwork tend to believe in the usefulness of casting a circle to concentrate what they're doing and to keep unwanted elements out.

But the key thing to remember is that, all things considered, the trappings of witchcraft are also very similar to the trappings of a lot of religions. A Catholic Mass, for instance, can also involve incense, candles, bells, and calling upon the power of a deity using language and phrasing that non-Catholics would find strange. Ultimately, all the candles and strange words in the world are no more than tools. It's like the old saying about how a hammer can be used to fix a house or hit someone over the head: it's not the hammer that's good or evil, it's how it's used that counts.

Of course debate does flow on both sides of the equation. Those that do believe in magic being evil say that it's a tool of Satan regardless of whether or not the person wielding that particular hammer happens to believe in ol' Scratch. On the flip side are those who believe intentions count for everything, and that magic used for positive goals is good no matter what anyone else says. In fact there are those who believe that so much that they manage to be both witches and members of mainstream religions as well. Unfortunately, until somebody gets a memo from the man/woman/flying spaghetti monster upstairs, it looks as though, much like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know who is right and who is wrong.

As for the nudity, while it's tempting to believe the Good Omens theory that the idea of naked witches is due to books on witches being written by men, the actual history of it goes back to a man named Gerald Gardner who advocated the concept of "going skyclad." Some say this is a good way to remove all extraneous trappings between yourself and the energies; others say Gerald was biased on his clothing views because he was a naturalist. Still others point out one doesn't necessarily negate the other.

AGREEING NOT TO AGREE

The reason why neo-Paganism and witchcraft are such difficult concepts to pin down is because there's no single body that's calling all the shots. Witchcraft as it's known today owes a lot to Gerald Gardner who, back in the 1940s, published a few books on the subject which he said were based on teachings of a woman named Dorothy Clutterbuck who apparently had a witchy pedigree as long as your arm. Gerald started the movement of what is now known as Wicca but, as I mentioned earlier, Wicca is not just one thing. Just as some Catholics branched out into various forms of Protestantism, Wiccans branched out into forms of Wicca that had nothing to do with Gardner. Alexandrian Wiccans brought more training and strict tradition to the party; Dianics rock the feminist angle. And those branches begat other branches which begat others which begat more still.

Which is to say nothing of the witches who claim they've been following a family tradition for generations that has absolutely nothing to do with Gardner at all. Or the neo-Pagans who don't care for Wicca and instead follow Eastern pantheons, or Native American belief systems, or Shamanism, or ancient Norse belief systems, or Celtic ones, or Voodoo, or - the list goes on.

One of the greatest attractions for many neo-Pagans is also one of neo-Paganism's greatest organizational weaknesses: for the most part neo-Paganism is BYOB: Bring Your Own Beliefs. If you want to be a Wiccan Druid Healer who has a coyote spirit animal and patron gods of Loki, Zeus, and Bast you can. Some other neo-Pagans might look at you strangely and accuse you of culture stealing, but others are just as likely to say that anyone who disagrees with you is missing the point of how everyone needs to find a belief system that makes sense to them.

And, it must be admitted, part of the confusion is also due to some members of the New Age book-publishing industry who will cheerfully agree to print any author who can string two words together regardless of whether or not they've done any research into their subject matter. This tends to encourage a slew of wanna-blessed-bes who call themselves Wiccans without respecting Wicca's religious tenets, or who cast spells because they think being a witch is super cool and involves no more effort than buying a handy dandy kit for $19.95, magic glitter included at no extra cost. But every religion has members that give the whole a bad name. Neo-Pagans have not cornered the market on people who claim to be a member of a group while doing absolutely nothing to act like it.

WHAT'S NEO-PAGANISM GOT THAT I HAVEN'T GOT?

People are drawn to neo-Paganism for a variety of reasons, but a common thread amongst them all is that it's nice to be with a group that truly does have a seat for everyone no matter how unique they or their beliefs might be. Many feel that this allows them to be more spiritual than they were before because neo-Paganism gives them the opportunity to define divinity with terms that are meaningful to them. After all, you wouldn't expect everyone in the world to love the exact same pizza toppings that you do, so why would you expect everyone in the world to see God in the same way you do too?

Women in particular are drawn to neo-Paganism because it often gives them a more personal connection with religion than more masculine-centered belief systems do. With neo- Paganism, women can be more involved with the ceremony of their religion than they can in many other organizations whose members still cluck their tongues and gasp at the idea of women wanting to lead a service. They can also move away from being told that there is only God the Father and that if they'd like someone female to pray to then they'll need to go way down on the totem pole, assuming their beliefs allow them to pray to anyone but God at all. But it isn't just women who are drawn to neo-Paganism. Men can also find benefits in being allowed to meditate and ask themselves just what exactly they think divinity entails, and in being given the tools to relate to that.

CRAFTING A STORY OF YOUR VERY OWN

Realistic portrayals of neo-Paganism are not required if all you want to do is have somebody in your story be able to cast a spell. After all, nobody at Hogwarts goes around quoting the Threefold Rule, much though Draco would do well to remember it.

Where problems arise is when an author awkwardly attempts to appease real witches while not quite getting where they're coming from. Joss Whedon may have been attempting a thoughtful shout-out by calling Willow and Tara "kick-ass Wiccas," but most who knew the terminology were left scratching their heads in much the same way as if Buffy had been called a kick-ass Christia. Where had the n gone? And why call Willow, who was Jewish, by the name of another religion at all? Likewise, Charmed, though it laid claim to having witchcraft experts behind the scenes, walked a fine line by nodding to the Rede and calling the sisters' collection of spells a Book of Shadows, while at the same time making fun of the candle-and- incense-using crowd that includes many real-life witches. Other attempts to show real- life neo-Paganism take a wrong turn by pausing the story to deliver religious lectures may or may not have any bearing on the plot, as Mercedes Lackey did in her Diana Tregarde stories.

As with anything else in your writing, the important thing is to take what you know and shape it into the best possible story. Is it necessary for your characters to be neo- Pagan? Then what kind are they? What beliefs do they have? How do they practice? Do they use magic or don't they? What gods do they worship? The answers to all of these questions may not ever make it onto the page, but knowing more about your characters will help you flesh them out and make them three dimensional for your reader.

Do it correctly and I won't have to turn you into a newt.

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© AJ Grant

AJ Grant is a staff writer for Reflection's Edge who manages to believe in witchcraft and Christianity without getting dizzy by implied contradictions between the two. One of these days, AJ will get around to having a website that lists all the articles and stories that she's published. For other Reflection's Edge articles by AJ Grant, click here.